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Newswise — The opioid epidemic has become a public health crisis in the U.S. While primary care physicians have been writing fewer opioid prescriptions over the last several years, new opioid prescriptions by surgeons increased 18 percent from 2010-2016. However, many surgeons are now diligently...
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Newswise — Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have found that dentists practicing in the U.S. write 37 times more opioid prescriptions than dentists practicing in England. And, the type of opioids they prescribe has a higher potential for abuse.
Their findings, which are...
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Newswise — A specialized pain management program for patients who underwent robotic surgery for urologic cancers resulted in just eight percent going home with narcotics after discharge, compared to 100 percent who would have received them without this enhanced recovery protocol. What’s more, the...
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Newswise — Surgical patients receiving the opioid tramadol have a somewhat higher risk of prolonged use than those receiving other common opioids, new Mayo Clinic research finds. However, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) classifies tramadol as a Schedule IV controlled substrance, meaning it...
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Although opioids play a key role in reducing pain when recovering from surgery, some patients transition to chronic users and become dependent on them. In order to find out what situations result in patients continuing to refill their opioid prescriptions after a surgery, Johns Hopkins researchers...
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New research conducted by a team from the School of Social Welfare, Albany University reports an association between nonmedical prescription opioid use (NMPOU) and risk for suicide ideation, planning, and attempt among both younger and older adults. The researchers express particular concern over...
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Conclusions from a recent study on rhesus monkeys suggest that combining opioids with marijuana may be an effective approach to reducing opioid dosage levels and attendant dependency risk while maintaining overall analgesia. The study found that cognitive impairment, including impulsivity and memory...
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With funding provided by a grant from the National Institutes for Health, a research team at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center is seeking to develop a vaccine that would stimulate the patient’s immune system to produce antibodies that would attack an ingested opioid. If successful...
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Michigan OPEN—the Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network—was founded to develop a preventive approach to the opioid epidemic in the state through a focus on reducing acute care prescribing (surgery, dentistry, emergency medicine, and trauma). Addressing opioid prescribing during the acute care period...
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Findings from what the authors term “the most up-to-date and most comprehensive clinical review of endocrine effects of long-term opioid use” suggest that chronic opioid therapy may be associated with insufficient levels of testosterone and cortisol in many individuals. Author Amir Zamanipoor...